With our annual trip to Europe explaining most of the gap, I realised that it had been five months since we’d visited Home nightclub on a Friday night for Voodoo. And with one of the DJs we’d seen and enjoyed in Europe being on the bill, we decided not to let the Hallowe’en theme of the occasion put us off!

Sure enough, when we arrived, there was a seriously long queue to get in – comprised mainly, it seemed, of university students in fancy dress. The queue moved pretty quickly, in fairness, and it was nice to be remembered on the door after the long absence.

One of the local DJs, Dexi, was playing as we worked our way through the packed club to our usual spot in the far corner. Although her tunes weren’t really to my taste, she was getting a good response from the students on the packed dancefloor. But by 1am it was time for the international headliners to take over.

We’d seen Alex Di Stefano play the Driftwood boat party in Ibiza. We’d really enjoyed that set, but this was a very different setting – playing into the small hours in a packed club, as opposed to getting things going in the heat of the afternoon sun on a small boat. What followed was ninety minutes of almost perfect techno-flavoured trance. For me the only slightly off note was when he dropped Vini Vici – The Tribe, a tune that has been played to death this year.

Other than that, it was wonderful from start to finish. I was so transported that I hardly took any notes of the tracks I knew, but the reality is that I probably enjoyed the tunes I didn’t recognise even more than those I did. Luckily I’ve been helped out by a friend, so I can tell you that the tracks dropped included Alex Di Stefano – Black Panther, The Noble Six – Undimmed (Alex di Stefano Remix), Bryan Kearney & Will Rees – Prime Example, Lange – Formula None (Alex Di Stefano Remix), Alex Di Stefano – I’ve Got the Power (Signum Signal Remix), Scot Project & Mark Sherry – Acid Air Raid (Mark Sherry’s Acidburst Mix), James Dymond – Echoes and M.I.K.E. Push – The Legacy (ID Re-work).

But a mere list of tracks can’t do justice to the magic of Di Stefano’s set, which was beautifully mixed and paced to take us on a journey that no lover of trance could fail to enjoy. The fact that a lot of the university students didn’t last the distance was not really an issue, as it gave the rest of us more room to dance and enjoy the night – and the dance floor remained very busy in any event.

I haven’t yet mentioned the superb production that you get seemingly as standard at Voodoo these days, with a fantastic lights and lasers show to complement the music. I suppose I should also acknowledge the fact that the gents has been renovated since our last visit, something that was definitely overdue!

Eddie Bitar is a DJ who I have never really had the chance to see properly before, and on this occasion we missed the start of his set as we took the chance to speak with Alex Di Stefano, who surprisingly remembered us from the boat party in Ibiza.

When we did return to listen to Bitar, I couldn’t really get into what he was playing, although the crowd seemed to be enjoying his music, delivered with the assistance of two young women either side of him at the mixer. Perhaps his style isn’t my thing, or maybe it was asking too much of anyone to follow the sublime set from Alex Di Stefano? Either way, we decided to cut and run at 3.15am and catch our night bus home.

All in all it had been a really good night at Voodoo and I’m really looking forward to several more visits in the next few weeks, as Genesis continues to book some fantastic international trance DJs.

Lastly, a word of thanks to Iván Igamez for help with the tracks that Di Stefano played!